JPL is RIP

C. Jerry Kutner

10 years ago

If you’re a fan of the films of Otto Preminger, Roger Corman, or Mario Bava – or, like me, all three – you will be saddened to learn of the death earlier this week of John Phillip Law, who was an iconic presence in the films of all three directors.

For Preminger, he played a poor white farmer in Hurry Sundown (1967), and an acid-dropping hippie in Skidoo (1968).

For Corman, he played the symbol of Germany’s best, Baron von Richtofen, supplanted by Germany’s worst, the Nazis, in Von Richtofen and Brown (1971). He also appeared memorably for another Roger – Vadim – as the blind angel Pygar in Barbarella (1968).

Equally iconic, if not more so, was his appearance as the jumpsuit-clad comic book villain Diabolik in Mario Bava’s Danger Diabolik (also 1968, above).

For a far more detailed consideration of Law’s legacy, see Tim Lucas’s Video Watchbloghere and here.